Public-private partnership or ‘privatization scheme?’ New details emerge about Peoples Gas proposal to fix city water infrastructure

New information has emerged about an aggressive push by Peoples Natural Gas to take control of parts of the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority’s infrastructure, a deal the company hopes it can strike by promising to fix some of PWSA’s problems.

The plan amounts to ownership of the city’s water infrastructure over time, Weimar said on Tuesday.

“They’re establishing, over time, ownership rather than an outright purchase,” he said.

That’s the impression Shaw got, too. “It seemed like a full privatization scheme to us,” she said.